


Dancer in the dark

by Ritzy



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gaara - Freeform, Implied Sexual Content, LeeGaa Week, M/M, Rock Lee - Freeform, Sexual Humor, Sexual Tension, dancer gaara, highschool, leegaa highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-09-29 17:55:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ritzy/pseuds/Ritzy
Summary: Gaara moves to the leaf village in an attempt to not get left alone with his father when his siblings away. as a result of this he ends up going to Konoha high school. He's generally an artistic kid, a good dancer, and an artist, so what happens when he starts to fall for the schools jock Rock Lee?





	1. The one who was looking

I have always hated car rides, and not for the reason you would think. I wasn't upset about the long drive ahead of us and how I was going to be exceedingly bored. I hated car rides because of my father. I could remember him shoving me in the car and taking me out to an old building. Most of those times I didn't remember a lot from it, but what I did remember I tried my hardest not to think about, ever. I remember dad not being very fond of the hobbies I opted for, his least favorite was dance. It wasn't as if he didn't know I was gay, he just didn't think the future leader of Suna should be “prancing around.” But that's fine, I don’t care what he thinks. I have and will continue school dance as well as in a studio. Even still, here I was my ass sat in a car driving our 8-hour drive to Konoha. I didn't want to be here at all but it was better than the alternative. My sister was moving in with her boyfriend and my brother was moving there to pursue a career, that would leave me alone, with my father. So, I was in a car, my sister driving her dark blonde ponytails poking out from over her seat, on my way to Konoha. I was going to live with my older brother in a small apartment. But for now, I sat and tried to get some sleep.  
My attempt to sleep was unsuccessful, so I drew to distract myself and pass the time. I didn't draw anything in particular. Just random body parts. I would draw a random hand in different positions. Before too long we were there, pulled in front of an apartment. Kankuro got out of the car and grabbed a couple of suitcases and I grabbed mine. I didn't need a lot just enough for me to survive, but a few cute clothes wouldn't hurt. We would have a moving truck take the rest of our stuff to us, like couches, but for now, this was all we had. I made my way up the stairs with my belongings and Temari waved through the window yelling and crying. I couldn't make out everything she said but it was something about Kankuro not getting anyone pregnant the first week we were here. I agreed.  
We went into our respected areas. Kankuro the living room me the bedroom. Everything was so bare, we would have to go to the store later to get food and a couple of beds with sheets. I made a mental note to make Kankuro do that. I sat on the cold wooden floors and opened up my suitcase. There wasn't a lot in the room but there was a dark chestnut dresser. Which meant I could put away my clothes.  
Before too long I was putting the last shirt into the dresser. I walked into the living room to find Kankuro laying on the floor staring at the ceiling. He didn't seem to remember that he was supposed to get all of the things we needed for the night.  
“You know, you wouldn't need to sit on the floor if you remembered to go to the store.” I sighed.  
This was the last thing I wanted to do today. I already had to sit through a long car ride and now I was sitting in a shopping cart while my brother hit on a poor girl in the soup aisle.  
Fuck it I'll do it myself.  
I climbed out of the car swinging my legs over the sides of the cart before pulling myself over the edge. I walked behind the cart trying my best to read the signs that hung over each aisle. I started my shopping adventure by grabbing any foods that look like they would taste good at all, resulting in me having a basket full of snacks with no nutrients.  
Soon I was in an aisle that had basic living supplies in it. There were mattresses in the far corner I started to make my way in that direction, swerving to avoid people that didn't see me. Unfortunately, I didn't always succeed. Before I was able to move out of the way in time a tall man walking with his fingers interlaced with a girl with light pink hair walked into me. Him, being much bigger than me in both height and muscle, easily knocked me over. I sat on the floor for a good five seconds before letting out a long sigh and pushing myself up slowly. The brute seemed to have come to his senses about what had just happened as he grabbed my elbow and helped me off the ground with mutters about how he “was sorry” or “ didn't see me.” whatever the case may be I still fell, and I wasn't exactly thrilled at that. I waved away his mutters sighing that it was fine. I glanced at his assumed girlfriend and was surprised to see her standing arms crossed, eyes on the ceiling, while she tapped her foot impatiently.  
It was around this time that I saw my brother standing at the end of the aisle, next to the mattresses, smirking at me with his dumb face. I quickly waved goodbye and ran over to my brother. I figured I would hear a joke about me falling within the first 10 seconds of being within speaking range of him. To my surprise, he didn't make a joke at all. The whole time the people at the mattress section were loading the two mattresses into their truck to deliver to our house he just stood there, smirking. He was like that the whole way home, and while the people put our new mattresses away too. It was only after everyone was gone that he finally commented on it. His smirk lowered and he stated “Gaara has a boyfriend. We've been here for 3 hours and you already found the love of your life.” As always he was being dumb. I rolled my eyes and turned away. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of the most promising looking chips, and then b lined for my room. I spent the rest of my night on my laptop, watching various TV shows. Guess my first day at a new school will be had with no sleep.  
Faintly, I could hear a buzzing. I turned to see the alarm on my phone reminding me to get up for school. “The first day” I sighed sitting up in my bed, which was just my new mattress on the floor, and closing the lid of my laptop and sticking it in my backpack. I plugged my headphones into my phone and started blaring my music while I got ready for the day. I packed my dance bag, sketchbook, paints, and brushes. By the time I was finished packing all the things I needed for school the bag weighed half as much as me. Even still, I started out the door and started making my way to school. After walking for almost 40 minutes I finally made it to the front doors of the high school. When I walked in there was a door that veered off to the left. Great that would be the office. I walked in and stood in front of the first person behind a desk I could find, I told her that I transferred and I needed my schedule. I transferred near the end of the year so I knew I wouldn't find a friend group to be with. All the cliques were already well established and I was just throwing myself into the bees nest.  
Doors, a lot of them. They lined the path down the hallway. At the end of the seemingly endless doors stood one alone, one lone door at the end of the hall. That was my class. C-301, Physics. The class was a grade level above me, and that made it intimidating. Fortunately for me, that was the last class I had to take today. All I had to do was make it through a class full of people much bigger than me who likely wanted nothing to do with me. To be fair, I wanted nothing to do with them either. I walked in the door, there were already quite a few people in their claimed spots. As I scanned the room for a place to sit that would also keep me from being called on by the teacher, I spotted a familiar face. He wore a green and grey varsity jacket on the front was a big black L. Maybe it’s because I looked a little too long or it was all by chance, but he looked back at me. I couldn't just look away and pretend I wasn't looking at him, then he would think I was staring, and I don’t think I could make it through that embarrassment.  
I hadn't realized that I was spacing out til my eyes went back into focus, he waved his arm at me signaling me to walk over to where he was sitting. Middle of the room by the window. Perfect, not in the front where the teacher will call on you because you're the first he sees but also not in the back where he looks when he wants to force the shy kids to participate. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, all I knew if someone wanted to be near me, and they had a good sitting place saved.  
I sat next to him, in the seat he had been feverishly tapping from the moment I got within 5 feet of him. I opened my bag and pulled out my textbook and flipping to the page that was written on the board. While I flipped through the pages I felt the back of my chair move ever so slightly. I held the page I was at between my fingers and turned my back to find a second familiar face, holding my sketchbook in hand. Crap. It was the girl from the store, that was with bowl-cut. What is a person even supposed to do in this situation? (i ask myself the same question as I write this.) she held my sketchbook between two fingers. “So you’re an artist cute, little art kid coming in to swoop up the lead receiver,” she said letting the book fall and catching in by the cover page. “Let's see just how skilled art kid is anyway.” My stomach turned, I felt myself seep lower into my chair. This was the last thing I wanted to happen in this class. From the corner of my eye, I could see the ‘ lead receiver’ stand up from his chair. “ come on Sakura, be nice he’s new.” he reached his hand forward to try to take my book from her only for her to move it out of the way. He sighed, by now the whole class had all eyes on her. Some peered over her shoulder trying to see anything they could. “Come on lee it's all in good fun, I just wanna see his art.” As much as I didn't want that to happen I wasn't going to make any advances to get the sketchbook back, so I sat. She flipped open the first page and sighed. Her face dropped and she looked disappointed, but only for a second. Then her face turned into a smirk as she thought of a new thing to say. “Who's this? Your girlfriend?” she turned the page over to reveal an old sketch, the first one I did when I got a new sketchbook.  
The drawing was of my sister before she looked as tired and worn out. Her hair back and back against a wall. Though she was expressionless she looked serene. I remember taking the photo on my phone and enjoying it so much I decided to draw it. It took forever to draw, countless hours sitting alone in my room trying to perfect it. In the end, it was nice. I enjoyed how it looked and was pleased. When I was done I showed Temari, she liked it so much she made a copy of it and hung it in her room. I loved this art piece, it meant a lot to me. It showed my love for my older sister. But here it was being shown off to my entire physics class, between the (probably greasy) fingers of a pink-haired senior, asking me if she was my girlfriend. “no... “ was all I could get to come out of my mouth at that moment. This time bowl-cut was able to gently take it away from Sakura, handing it back to me. “Either way, whoever she is, she's beautiful and you did a great job drawing her.” I had nothing to say, so I nodded and put the book back in my bag. The teacher was too tired to deal with our class today, so he took a nap and we had an independent study period. There was hardly any time left now for me to study, but I stuck my nose in a book and read ‘til the class was over.  
The bell rang, the class was over and it was time to go home. I texted Kankuro and asked him to pick me up. I didn't feel like walking home. I put my phone back into my pocket and stood up leave. Before I could go, bowl cut started talking to me. “ I'm sorry about her, she can get mean when she's jealous. I'm Lee.” he extended his hand, asking for me to do the same. I gave him my hand and he greeted me with a smile. “Gaara, “ I said taking my hand back and putting it in my pocket. “I'm Gaara.”  
He walked with me, beside me out to the car line. When we got there I started looking for my brother's car. But it was nowhere in sight. I stood on the top of my toes, to get the most height I could in order to see over the sea of tall high schooler's. Instead, I was met with a car pulling up and rolling down the window. It was my sister. “Kankuro called, get in.” I pulled open the door and sat in the seat next to hers. She started driving, finding a way to get out of the parking area. Before I could even get my seat belt buckled I heard her talking to me. “How was your day? Any new friends?” now that we were alone we were able to talk more comfortably. Suna spoke a different language than the leaf, which was one reason I was nervous to move here. I could understand people but I wasn't as comfortable speaking to people. I thought they would ridicule my accent, or make fun of me if I messed up the grammar. But that was at school, with my siblings it was easy, I could just speak in Sand. “ it was fine, mostly uneventful. Potentially a new friend but no, quite the opposite. “ I replied digging in my bag to find a pencil so I could start on my homework.  
The car ride went how you would expect, I told her about my day. The worst parts and the best and she told me about hers. We talked like that until we reached my apartment complex. When we talked in the car I opted to leave out the part in my story where they asked if Temari was my girlfriend. It wasn't important anyway. I waved goodbye and walked up to my apartment and unlocked the door. As soon as I walked in I sat down on the sofa sighing. I finished all my homework then went to my room for the rest of the night. I spent my night drawing and then watching Netflix.  
A new day with new horrors awaiting. I sat up in my bed, suppressing the urge to throw my phone across the room. Instead, I settled for just turning it off and putting it in my pocket. Normally I never eat breakfast, but today was a day of changes. So I fried two eggs and put them in a sandwich and headed out the front door after grabbing my backpack. “Maybe today I'll drive?” whispered aloud to myself. Today was a day of changes not getting myself killed. I walked down the sidewalk. I ate while I walked, putting in headphones and listening to my usual songs. Before very long I was in front of the doors again. “ another day another dime.” I pulled my legs up and trudged up the stairs. It was only my second day and I already didn’t want to go to class. I got into school earlier than I thought I would so I decided to go up to the library. While I sat and read with headphones in blaring the songs on my playlist, I noticed the library had a coffee bar. If today is going to go anything like it did yesterday, I'll need coffee. I went to the coffee bar and ordered my coffee. After paying and getting my drink, there were about 10 minutes until the first period would start. I walked down the hall sipping and blowing my coffee. When I walked into my first period, Algebra, I took out my earbuds and sat in my seat. I scrolled through various social media, doing my daily rounds to make sure I was updated on everything that's happening. I waited for the teacher to come to class. Soon other students flooded into the room, filling it with noise. Just as I finished checking the last of my accounts the teacher walked in and the bell ring. “ Ok class, today will be easy, we will be talking about Fibonacci Numbers.” the teacher began while he shut the door.  
The day seemed to go on forever, it’s felt like I had been here for hours but in reality, the bell for the third period had just rung. This class was the class I had been looking forward to all morning, dance. The teacher had been reluctant to take me into her class in the middle of the year without knowing anything about my skill level. However, after my sister lightly mentioned our father she changed her mind. Funny how things work, as a child I learned all things were political not just the government. This only proved all the things I already knew. It wasn't as if I didn't have the skill to get in, I did. There are just rules to get in and since I wasn't at auditions I shouldn't have been let in, except for my dad's influence. Everyone sat with their group of friends, eating gossiping, whatever they normally did until the teacher came in. I sat alone in a chair texting my brother. The teacher announced that we were going to start choreography projects, it was a competition of sorts, the winner would get vouchers for a meal at a local restaurant. People ran to their respective friends and started working together to pick a song. I decided I would just work alone. I scrolled through my playlist to try to find a song to dance to. before long I came across a song that I liked. Because I was working alone I didn't have to have anyone to agree or disagree with me, so I just started. I was in a corner that had a short hallway that leads out to the track. Out of the window, I could see the football boys practicing. I noticed they were not completely decked out in their football uniforms, but to be fair this was their version of hot. I continued to work on my dance. I chose to do a hip-hop dance since that's what I had the most experience with.  
It was Friday, two weeks had gone by and my choreography project was due second period. First, I had to get through algebra, which was hell, but after nearly falling asleep in class the bell rang. I grabbed my bag and practically ran to the dance room. In my week here I had become known as “a quiet kid.” It wasn’t that people didn’t try to talk to me, many people did. They gave up trying because I either ignored them or gave the shortest response I could. People think I'm shy, they are wrong. I just have no interest in making friends with people. This was probably the reason I had good grades, no people asking me to hang out instead of going over what we learned that day. Today the idea that I was shy would die. When I got to class we all sat in chairs that the teacher set up so we could watch our fellow students dance while she graded them. After about 8 people it was my turn. I walked to the middle of the room and waited for the teacher to play my song. “ the music is on” she said putting her phone down before the music started playing through the big blue tooth speaker next to her. I started my dance by using the sound effects with my dance moves. I moved my arms to emulate firing a gun for the beat to lead into the rest of the song. As soon as my dance started it became clear that I wasn’t the stereotypical quiet kid everyone thought I was. My dance was good, most everyone agreed. Because of the short time frame and my lack of partners I wasn't able to do everything I would have liked with the dance. Regardless of that, I was voted the winner of the contest and was handed the meal tickets. I planned on using them with my brother or maybe my sister if he refused.  
I was happy, not beaming but it was still visible. That was if you looked hard enough. The corners of my mouth were just a little higher, my shoulders just a little more relaxed. It was there, but you had to be looking. No one had noticed because of course, they weren't looking. Why would they be? I'm not in the least interesting, not over attractive, not incredibly smart. The only incredible thing about me was how incredibly average I was. Or maybe it was the fluorescent red hair, that did draw attention. But I didn't care. It was only a glance before they looked away before they lost interest. That's what made this so weird, someone having an interest. Once again lee called me over to his table and I complied, Sakura protested, got ignored. Why did he care? The more I was around him the more I noticed that no matter what, he was smiling. You could spill hot coffee on him and he would laugh it off and ask if you were Ok.  
So I sat by him, I sat by him because he was the only one that cared. He was the only one who was looking.


	2. sugar and smoke rings

The class went on, as usual, our teacher explained a problem on the board. Most of the class tried to keep up with him while taking notes on their laptops. Lee, however, was doing something else. I could tell he was trying to keep up but was struggling to understand it. He wasn't the only one, he just made it very obvious. He laid his cheek in his hand while he scowled his eyebrows. Anyone who didn't know him might think he was giving the teacher dirty looks, but that wasn't it. He just couldn’t quite understand. He was jotting down random things in a small notebook while he focused on the teacher. Presumably his notes on what he needed to study. I had studied ahead the other night.I didn't normally do this but i finished reviewing early. To pass the time I started on the homework for that day, but like most assignments, it wasn't very interesting and I ended up doodling on the corner of my paper. The face he made while he concentrated was cute, so I ended up using it as my reference photo. Just as I finished both my homework and my drawing, the bell rang. I turned in my paper early and walked to the art room.  
Lee’s POV  
I walked into my last class. My dad taught this class so after class I just went home with him, it was really convenient actually. I found my seat and pulled out my laptop and binder for the class. Kakashi walked in the class and greeted us after apologizing for being late and giving a dumb excuse.   
“Today we will be studying the ever famous problem of ‘ If you are in a train going 200 mph and you shoot an arrow out of your window what happens?” he said while he wrote the problem down on the chalkboard. I pull out a small notebook and write the same thing inside. A few weeks ago I heard someone say that writing something makes it easier to remember than typing it on your laptop, I figured it was worth a try. “ to another person inside the train it would look like the arrow followed the length of the train, they would also still perceive it as going 200 mph. Which in my opinion is a very concerning thing to see.” He said while he drew a model of a train and the arrow curving beside the train to represent how the person sees the arrow. It wasn't the best drawing but, as he said at the beginning of the year. “I'm not an art teacher.” I drew the same model in my book while I tried to focus on what he was saying. Even though I didn't fully understand it I wasn't incredibly worried about it. I would just ask him to help me with it after I got home from football practice. For now, I just tried my best to learn it so I would have less to do at home. “ as for how it would look outside the train, it's simple. The arrow would fly out the window and continue to fly before gravity finally brought it to the ground.” He drew another train model the only difference was that the arrow flew in a straight line. The lesson continued with him explaining different scenarios, some where the arrow is going a different speed than the train. And as he explained more I took more notes, each time redrawing the models. By the end of the class, the chalkboard was full of various formulas and models of our train problem. Kakashi said goodbye to everyone while he grabbed the papers with yesterday's homework so he could grade them. I grabbed my bag and walked up to his desk. “ I'll have Gai take me home after practice.” I glanced at the pile of homework. There was one paper with the homework from today laying face down. how can anyone do that homework so quickly? I walked to the locker room beside the gym and quickly got my football bag before walking out to the football track. When I got there, there were only a few people on the track. I put on my shoulder pads and jersey and started to stretch before we had practice. After everyone got there and we all had enough time to stretch Gai announced that we would be starting practice. He brought out something called a football sled, which basically was a heavy dummy you pushed across the field. We did other things to improve our game like making a ball into a shopping cart in the middle of the field. After we went through all the practices we decided to have a mock game. The team was divided in half and one of the teams put on a blue mesh over their jerseys. Then we played a game of football.

Gaara’s POV  
I opened the door to the art room. After my second period, Art, I asked if I could stay after school to finish my art project since it would only take me about 20 more minutes. The project was that we had to draw or paint some sea creatures in an unusual habitat.’ Most of the class elected to draw a Land shark or ocean animals on a different planet. I chose to do something a little different, I decided to put my sea creatures in a glass jar filled with water. My sea creatures were miniaturized and put into this jar, a lid the only thing stopping them from being released. I provided them everything they needed to survive in this habitat, they had, coral, seaweed and of course lots of other fish and sea life. I have started painting it today and only needed a little more time to finish it. I spent the next 22 minutes with my headphones in blaring my music while I quietly finished my painting and put it on the drying rack. I walked out the back door and started to walk around to the front so I could walk home. Halfway from the back door, I saw the football team playing on the track. It couldn’t hurt to go check it out for a second right? I walked over to the track and sat on the bench that was set up beside the field. I could see Lee, he was running by the person holding the ball. I know nothing about football, I'm not going to pretend to know something. All I know is that eventually the person with the ball passed the touchdown line, and Lee was happy. So I clapped. I only meant to be there for a little while to see what was going on. But lee was very interesting to watch, sometimes he looked very serious, and others he was beaming like a ray of sunshine. So, I stayed. Before I knew it 10 minutes had passed. I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. I knew it was a bad habit, that's why I rarely smoked. I put the stick in my mouth and lit it. I Watched lee play, even though I didn't know the rules of the game I slowly learned when I was supposed to be happy for Lee and when i was supposed to feel upset. Before I knew it the coach was saying goodbye to all the players. That was my cue to leave. I started to walk away from the field,but I stopped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. My body went stiff and my head stooped. I turned around to find no one less than Mr. bowl-cut himself. “ Hi lee.” I said, as I realized who it was my shoulders relaxed.   
“What are you doing here?” he asked me taking his hand off my shoulder now that he had my attention. His voice was horse from running around. The ends of his hair stuck to his forehead.  
“I had stuff to do after school...i came to see what was going on over here when i was done” I explained, making it sound like i had only dropped in for a few minutes. When in reality i watched most of the game. I started to walk away thinking this was the end of our conversation. That thought was put behind me when lee happily walked beside me continuing the conversation.   
“My dads getting his car...if you want i can give you a ride home” he said lightly. As much as i felt like saying no, i couldn’t pass up not walking home. So i accepted, and we walked to the front of the school. Lee sent a text on his phone then sat on a bench that was in front of the school.Not any sooner than he sat down a large green pick up truck pulled up in front of the school. He immediately stood up and walked over to the car. “Come on, lets go” he opened the door and quickly hopped inside the car. Normally trucks have something for short people to step on to get into tall vehicles, this truck did not. Of course this meant he also had to raise it extra tall, so i was trying to figure out how to get in the car. I tried to get i the car jumping as best as i could but, of course i slipped and fell hitting my hip on the concrete sidewalk. I quickly pulled my hand to my hip and leaned my head back on the sidewalk. “Fuck..that hurt like a bitch” i whispered before feeling a pair of hands wrap around my waist lifting me off the floor. Lee had gotten out of the car to help me after i fell. Without thinking about what i was doing i put my head on his shoulder hiding from the embarrassment. My body wrapped my legs around his waist around him to keep myself from falling back onto the floor. Lee tucked his arms under my butt adjusting his hold on me so he wouldn't drop me. He leaned into the side of the truck and carefully slipped one hand out from under me to open the door before returning it where it came from. He leaned into the truck and set me in the seat in the middle before pulling himself into the seat next to me. He buckled his own seat belt before making sure i had buckled my own. I reached over and swung the sash over my body, it digging into my neck in the process. Lee adjusted the seat belt that was set for tall people, so that it laid across my shoulders. The football coach smiled into the mirror before starting to drive away, the car ride started with us chatting about why i stayed after school. Eventually lee's dad asked me a question. “I teach all the PE’s and athletics...Why haven't i ever seen you?” As embarrassing as my dad thought dance was i always disagreed, what i didn't like was the people that judged me for liking dance. That's why when he inevitably asked this question, i was a little disappointed and nervous to see his reaction. With such a manly son like lee, i didn't know how he would feel about it.” i'm a dancer…” i said as nonchalantly as i could muster. I tried not to stutter when i spoke, both from being nervous and from the pain and embarrassment from my fall. Not to mention me latching onto lee like a drunk girl at a party. “So are you gay or do you just dance…” from the corner of my eye i saw lee slam his head into his arm. I didn't know how to answer that. Do i out myself and risk rejection or lie and be dishonest to a teacher at my school. I choose to make a middle ground and sat there in shock babbling incoherent words. Before long the message passed to Gai that i didn't know how to answer that and he brushed it off with an “its alright i get it… I can be a little straight forward, but i'm not judging. After all i have a husband.” He let me off with not answering and shared that information so easily. At least i knew lee wouldn't be biased to me. The rest of the car ride was lee cringing in solace and Gai talking about some random story that happened to him in the previous days” Eventually we made it to my apartment complex and i thanked lee and Gai for the ride before lee helped me get out of the car. He apologized for his father and got back into the car. Well I wouldn't be able to tell Kankuro nothing interesting happened today.


	3. Sugar Burns

Over the next couple days I iced my hip. It didn't take long before the bruising changed from blue and purple to yellow and green. The weekend came quick and soon i had enough time to finish up the rest of my homework. I laid in bed bored out of my mind. I had heard there was a party going on later that night, but I wasn't a huge party person. More of a stay in your room at watch Netflix until 2 am on a school night type. I'm not 100% sure what came over me but Ii got out of my bed and got dressed into more presentable clothes. I put on a black short-sleeved shirt,” broke artist” embroidered on the front in small white letters.I grabbed a pair of fishnet tights and put some ripped jeans over them. I tucked my shirt into my pants and tied it all together with a nice plain black belt. I grabbed my keys and wallet and walked over to the door where i put on some black army boots. I walked out the door, turning around and locking it before I left to find the party. I walked for a while before i realised i had no idea where the party even was. The street lights came on as it was starting to get dark. A light breeze blew across my face making the dust around me swirl. I was a little chilly this particular night, I hadn't thought about it before I left the house so I didn't grab a jacket. This was the reason i was lost in a different neiborhood shivering. The dust around me made my nose tickle, I sneezed a small sneeze covering my face with the corner of my elbow. I kept walking and before long I heard someone calling my name. It was a little raspy, like he had been sick over the weekend, or like he had been yelling for a while. I turned around facing towards the source of the sound. I saw lee jogging towards me with his hair bouncing every time he took a step. I slowly raised my hand and waved at him. I stopped and waited for him to catch up to me. He was wearing a green sweater over a white tee shirt. He had a black fanny pack around his waist with the actual “pack” part of the bag on his back. He finished off his look with black sweatpants with white draw strings and platform sneakers. It's not as if he needed to be any taller the man was already a giant. “Hey where you going?” he asked stopping beside me “to the party I said starting to walk, as he followed behind me. “ well if you actually want to get there you might wanna follow me.” he said turning around and heading in the opposite direction. I stood behind him watching him walk away before I started to run behind him. After walking for a couple of minutes we walked up to a house with the windows tinted pink. You could feel the pavement in front of the house shaking ecer so slightly along with the music. Through the cracked windows you could hear “wasabi playing on the speakers throughout the house. “ you're here!!” sakura squealed, jumping off the pouch and running towards lee. He leaned forward giving her a kiss, i glanced away looking at the large house i was at. “ what took you so long?” she asked looking over to me. “Oh,” she sighed with disappointment laced in her breath. I started to walk over to the front door weaving in and out between people. The majority of the people were gathered talking in the kitchen or outside around the pool. I went to the living room because it was close to the door in case I decided I wanted to leave. Lee came in a litte after me holding sakuras hand and talking to her about something. He used his hands to explain it, gesturing broadly around him, taking her hand along for the ride. She haphazardly listened while she looked around the room. People talked for a while then some people came over and started pulling the sofas to the side of the room. I moved out of the way as they moved the second couch to the far corners of the room. Lee and and a few other guys put together a long white table. They put red solo cups at each end of the table and filled them with various forms of alcohol. The ones closest to the middle were filled with light alcohol, in this case, it was beer. As the cups got closer to the ends of the outside of the table the alcohol got stronger. At the very end of the table, there were various strong drinks, like vodka and tequila. Lee walked over to me and grabbed me by the elbow “ hey come on let's play, it will be fun” I nodded and walked with him to the other side of the room. I knew where this was going, beer pong, with less beer. I was only half right. It was a mix of beer pong, that much was true. The other half was truth or dare. We all took turns writing truths and dares on small pieces of paper. We mixed them around in a big bowl then put them under the cups. When we finished, everybody who wanted to play the game separated into groups of two. We decided who would go first by a roll of a dice. After the order was decided we all stood around the table. Me and lee would be the 3rd to last to go, there was 5 groups so we were in the middle of the groups. The first group that was up was the host of the party, a girl named Ino, and Lee's girlfriend, sakura. I watched them play getting a better feel for how the game went, if they made it into one of the cups on your side you had to read it out loud. You could either do what it said on the note or drink out of the glass. If you did what the note said then you got to keep it. The person at the end with the most notes won that round. At the end of the girls game, the winner was announced after we counted the notes. Sense Ino won she got to rewrite new dares, as long as they weren't the same ones she answered they could be anything. She put the new papers under the cups and the next group came up. Sasuke and Kiba were the next group of people to play the strange take on beer pong. Some of the questions were more innocent, asking about life goals and other things people were just curious about. Others were less innocent, most of the questions were asking about the other persons sex life. Kiba made the ping pong ball into the glass closest to Sasuke. “ who in the room do you think would be a bad date?” Sasuke readout setting the piece of paper into his pocket before answering the question, ‘Naruto.” a few people around the room laughed including. I looked up at lee confused, Naruto looked at Sasuke annoyed. Lee leaned down to explain that the two were a couple, but before he had the chance to explain Sasuke interrupted him. Lee focused his attention on him, still leaned over to my smaller stature. “Every time we go on dates I can only get a word in when we're already almost home.” he said shrugging his shoulders. Lee looked back to Gaara, I gave him an understanding nod. Lee stood back up pulling the sofa a little closer so he would be able to sit while he watched. They finished their game and it was our turn to play, Kiba replaced the papers under the cup and I was handed a ball. Majority of the time i missed the mark. I wasn't a very good shot, lee, however, was a very good shot. “Where is the strangest place you've made out?” Drink. “How many sexual partners have you had?” Drink “whos your crush” definitely drink. This continued on for a while, me either not having an answer and not wanting to emm=baress myself and opting for the bitter drink instead. Or answering simply that I wasn't able to answer. Near the end, when most of my glasses were drunk, i finally made the pong ball into one of lees glasses. I could tell that Lee wasn't a person who liked to lose. Right after he read the question and put it in his pocket I knew that he was going to win, and not only because I sucked at this game. “ have you ever cheated/thought of cheating on your partner past or present?” he looked up and began to speak, “at the beginning of me and sakura relationship it was a little shakey, she still wasn't completely over someone and it frustrated me enough that I thought about it. I didn't wanna ruin it so I just waited for her to get over it. “ he said it as if everyone in the room already known. By looking around the room I could tell that this wasn't something he had mentioned before. We finished the game, to no one's surprise lee won. The next people stepped up and sakura dragged lee by his hand into the hallway. I couldn't make out most of the conversation because of the music, and people talking, but at times sakura would get loud enough to be heard over those noises. I could tell she was angry she yelled at him for quite a while. I didn't really pay attention to the rest of the game. Every now and again the people surrounding the group would have a sudden uproar from one of the answers, I would glance over then continue back to what I was doing. I knew it probably wasn't the best thing to be doing, listening in on an argument but I couldn't help it. Before long sakura let lee leave. He walked over beside me and grabbed his jacket, I could tell he was upset. “ do you have a ride home?” he asked still gritting his teeth slightly. I shook my head, I didn't have a ride and I wasn't quite sure how to get back home. “You can stay at my house tonight if you want, my parents wont mind.” i got out of my seat following him out of the door. We walked down the street quietly, I didn't want to ask him if he was ok but at the same time, I wanted to know. I decided to let it be for tonight, and that I would ask him about it tomorrow. We walked up the porch of a moderately sized house, lee grabbed his key out of the fanny pack he still had wrapped around his waist. He unlocked the door and walked into the hallway, taking off his shoes and placing the key in a bowl on a small desk. We walked up the stairs and went into his room, which was at the end of the hall. His room was decorated in a beautiful green shade, the same that his shirt was that night. I made a note that lees favourite color was this very specific shade of green. Above his desk were many awards for different activities, all sorted by date that he received him. I looked through them learning a little more about him as I went through them. In the beginning, there were a lot of jiu-jitsu awards then as time went on they slowly became less and less. He tried out a few different sports, basketball, soccer, baseball, then finally football. I sat down on his floor, the wood floorboards creaked as I sat down. He pulled back the green covers revealing the black underside of the sheets. He got into the bed sitting close to the wall before patting the side of the bed beside him. I got on the other side of the bed, he had a big bed so I laid with about 6 inches between us. “ are you ok?” I wasn't exactly sober so my curiosity got the better of me and I asked. “I heard you and sakura and I just- “I trailed off not wanted to sound more like a stalker than I already was making myself out to be. “You care a lot Gaara don't you?” lee asked I didn't know what to say. He didn't say it with a mean tone, yet somehow the words still seemed cold to me. “ you're really quiet, you don't talk a whole lot, but I can tell you care. That's why I like you so much.” he said running his hand through the dark black strands of hair. I now knew what he meant, he wasn't cold at all, he was still his sweet self. The sweet him that I liked so much. I had no words to respond with, but that felt like something you should respond to. I leaned forward pressing my lips onto his, I fully expected him to reject me as soon as I kissed him, but he didn't, instead he grabbed my arm and kissed me back. “ This is my response Lee.” I thought it echoing in my mind as if I was trying to send him a message. I pulled back. Laying down, my back facing the wall. I closed my eyes. “ maybe parties aren't so bad.” I thought before I fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up in an empty room; the sheets beside me had been straightened out. I looked around the room again, seeing all the things I missed the night before. A headache rang through my ears. I got out of the bed, trying my best to make the sheets straight again. I walked out of Lee’s room and down the long hallway that leads to the stairs. Remembering the layout of the house from the last adventure. I walked down the stairs and turned to my right.   
Lee was leaning over the counter, his elbows rested on the corner of the marble tabletops. In his hands, he held a bowl of cereal. “Good morning! You hungry?” he said far too enthusiastically for it to be this early in the morning. Yet at the same time, in some weird way, I liked that we were so different from each other. I nodded my head, he handed me a bowl asking me what kind of cereal I liked. I decided to just have what he was having. He handed me a bowl with Frosted Flakes in it, he then got out the peanut butter and put it in front of me. “ I like peanut butter in mine, you should try it.” I took a spoon and put a couple of scoops into my bowl. I added in the milk and took a bite, there was still peanut butter on my spoon from when I put it into the bowl. The rest of the peanut butter stayed in large clumps in the bottom of the bowl, with every spoonful I would chip away at the larger ball of peanut butter. It was good, before long we both finished our cereal then walked upstairs to his room to grab my stuff. Lee told me he would walk be home since I didn't know how to get home from his house. No protest on my part, we grabbed what little things I had left in his room and went back downstairs. We walked outside, the wind was slightly chilly, it wasn't as bad as it was night but the air still nipped my skin enough to turns my cheeks a light shade of pink. We walked beside the groups of houses, talking about various things the sun rising behind us. It turned out that I lived in the neighborhood next to Lee. It was the weekend and I had nothing to do this weekend sense I finished all my homework so I decided to just go inside and play video games on my laptop. Before I could walk through the door to find my laptop and load up the sims, or maybe Minecraft lee asked me a question. “What's your number, so I can put it into my phone?” He asked handing me his phone with the ‘new contact ‘ sheet already open, ready for me to fill it out. I grabbed the phone, holding it lightly with both my hands cupped under it, overlapping each other. I typed in my number quickly pausing, I typed my name into his phone and handed it back to him. “ thanks he said skipping onto one floor before turning and heading back the way we came. “I'll see you in physics!” he said turning his head to look back at me. I could see his smile gleaming smile looking back at me, he came to the street looking back to the front of him, he threw his arm into the air waving back at me dramatically, not looking back at me this time. Before long he turned a corner and I could no longer see him jogging lightly back to his house. I walked inside my front door to find Temari sitting on the sofa in the living room. The house had been decorated with small decor across the house. Paintings were strung around the room, some by me others I hadn't seen before. I took off my shoes when I walked in the door and looked around me at all the new things in my house. Kankuro walked out of the kitchen with a bag of chips, some hanging slightly from his mouth. “ hey welcome home...Temari did some..uh..stuff” he said sitting the bag of chips on the new coffee table. “Where were you last night, we could have used your help decorating,” Temari said grabbing a handful of chips from the bag and putting a few stray chips in her mouth. I explained that I stayed at a friend's house before I walked into my room. Unlike the rest of the house, my room was exactly the same as before I left. The walls were bare, yet familiar. I say down on my bed, feeling it bounce lightly underneath me. My phone made a light ding noise before I felt it buzz in my pocket. I picked up my phone and looked at my phone, the lock screen illuminated and I read the text that came across my screen. “ hey its lee :)” it read. I unlocked my phone typing a response before typing his name into my phone, “Lee :).” I locked my phone and lay back on my bed. I turned out the lights and turned on the lamp on my nightstand. I played on my phone for a few hours, talking to lee throughout that time. Before long I turned off my lamp and went to bed. I had school the next day, and then on Tuesday, I had to leave to go to a dance competition in another village.   
I woke up to the alarm on my phone ringing, telling me to get out of bed and get ready. I got out of bed, made breakfast, and ran off to school, following the usual routine. I followed along with the day, only mildly paying attention in class. I knew the next day I wouldn't have to go to these classes at all. I did, however, pay attention in physics. Not to the teacher however but to lee. I walked in the door just in time to see lee, already sat in his usual seat. Sakura attempted to sit next to lee, he moved to a different seat. I walked over, taking the free seat next to him. His face changed from a fallen smile back into his normal bright smile. I smiled back at him putting my bag in the space between us. The class went on, I lazily took notes, already understanding what we were learning. The class finished and it was time for me to go home. I walked home, making my way up to my house. I unlocked my door walking straight to my room. I started packing a dance back, putting the bare essentials of what I needed for the trip. I would be gone for the rest of the school week and coming back for the weekend. I finished packing and started on my homework. A few hours after I started my homework I got a text, causing my phone to light up. Lee asked me for help on a question, I faced timed him before much longer we finished our homework and started talking to each other. I talked to him pulling both my knees close to my chest hugging them to keep them from falling off the small chair I kept at my desk. I laughed at a joke lee told replying with a witty remark that made him laugh in return. I told him that I wouldn't be in class for the rest of the week, that I had a competition that week and he wished me luck. We both knew we needed sleep, but neither of us wanted to hang up. Lee finally said that he was going to go to bed before saying goodbye and hanging up. I laid in my bed, my phone laying next to my head on the pillow beside me. I laid, staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours. I hoped that lee would call me, telling me that he couldn't sleep either but the call never came. So I laid awake, not thinking about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I didn't upload last week I got super sick and I couldn't cope with writing, school and also taking care of myself. I don't wanna sound like I'm making excuses but I had to prioritize and my health and school came first. I hope everyone understands and forgives me 
> 
> in other news the past 2 days I've been in the most excruciating pain. to the point, my mom had to feel my stomach and ask me questions to figure out if I needed to go to the emergency room. I decided against going and came to the conclusion that it is connected to me hitting my tail bone really hard earlier this week. my mom thinks I pinched a nerve so....fun. 
> 
> see you guys next week! should I continue to do these little life updates at the end of my stories?? is that annoying? let me know :) -Ritzy
> 
> twitter-@gunther_karissa instagram-rissagunther

**Author's Note:**

> i had another ao3 account so if you see this story somewhere else that's my old account. i didn't steal this its my original story <3


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